The Trouble with Wilderness
by the.goal.is.greatness
Summary: At least if we have to be lost, it's pretty out right now. [Kit x Ty]


**Title:** The Trouble with Wilderness  
**Genre:** Romance / Humor  
**Rating:** K+  
**Pairing:** Kit x Ty  
**Spoilers:** The Dark Artifices  
**Summary:** At least if we have to be lost, it's pretty out right now.  
**Word Count:** 1,214  
**Warnings:** Drabble.

**Disclaimer:** _The Dark Artifices _and its characters do not belong to me, but to Cassandra Clare. Summary is from _Growing Wings_ by Lauren Winters.

**A/N:** I ADORE these two. Like, so precious!

* * *

_How could I let this happen?_ Kit lamented to himself as he trudged resolutely after Ty. They'd been out here for hours. "Are you sure we aren't – "

"A Shadowhunter is never lost."

Kit snapped his mouth shut. They were definitely lost. One hundred percent. No questions.

It had started out innocently enough. They had come out to a field near the woods to do a little training. Kit knew he was woefully behind in his Shadowhunter training, but he didn't want to go to Jace or Tessa or _Jules_ for help and look like a little kid. But Ty would never make fun of him or think any less of him for asking for help or for not doing something right on the first try. That's one of the things he admired about Ty. If you were having a problem learning something, he didn't think there was something wrong with you. He thought that something was wrong in the way you were being taught. He was the best kind of teacher. Patient and slow…

… and currently lost.

_Though he adamantly won't admit it_, Kit thought with no small amount of fondness, staring at the messy black hair in front of him and his marched resolutely through the woods as if he knew where he was going.

It had started out innocently enough. Where they had started training had been too close to people who might see him for Kit's comfort, so they moved a little farther on. Then Ty had an idea for a better training method. So they moved a little farther. Then their training kept inching them farther and farther along. Then Ty had a brilliant idea for a sort of game of tag for Kit's training and that sounded fun so that's what they did and then when they paused to catch their breath, Kit happened to take a look around and realized he had absolutely no clue where they were.

He blinked. "Ty, I think we're lost."

Ty glanced around, slow and sure of himself, a Shadowhunter out in the elements. Kit could see the exact moment he, too, realized they were lost, and then the exact moment he decided to pretend that they weren't. "No, I know where we are."

Another blink. "Bullshit."

It was Ty's turn to look started.

"How do we get back then?"

"Based on the angle of the sun and the direction of the mountains from where they were when we first started – "

"You literally have no idea where we are."

With the haughtiest look Kit had ever seen plastered on his face, Ty tipped up his nose, and said, "This way."

That had been three hours ago. Kit had asked if there was a rune to find their way back to civilization and Ty gave him another winding answer that Kit took to mean there was but he didn't know what it was. Then Ty had started to fill the silence with excerpts of all the famous detectives he'd read about and how they found their ways home again.

"In another instance – "

"Ty," Kit hated to interrupt him. He found Ty's voice soothing, like the gentle hum of a radio playing a well-loved song. "It's getting dark." He glanced around apprehensively. The sunset had turned the horizon a muddle of purple and gold emblazoned across the sky. The moon was as full and round as an egg and shining brightly. Stars were winking into view. "Maybe we should find somewhere to camp."

Ty blinked. "We have a camping supplies."

It was Kit's turn to look haughty. "Come on Ty. Haven't you ever seen _Naked and Afraid_?" Kit was startled when the response he got was a sudden blush. "Uh, I mean, it's a show about people surviving in the wild." Kit cleared his throat nervously. "Follow me."

So Ty followed Kit, and he picked his way through the woods in starts and fits until he found a massive tree that had toppled over, its roots high in the air, creating a perfect dome of shelter. With a few runes, they ascertained it was free from all manner of wildlife so they crawled in. Once inside, there was a lot less space than their seemed to be. The pair found themselves shoulder to shoulder, bodies pressed together in a firm line down the entire length of their sides. There was awkward silence. An owl calls from somewhere above them, farther away is the howling of a wolf. The air smells of twilight and earth.

Suddenly Ty cleared his throat and the sound was so loud in the quit space that Kit started. "So when…" Kit audibly heard him swallow. "When must we get naked?"

Kit felt his jaw drop open as managed to squirm his way around so he could face his best friend. "_What_?" He was gratified to see Ty's face bloom a becoming shade of crimson because his own face felt like it was on fire. As Ty tried to answer, Kit suddenly realized where this was coming from. "That… that thing I mentioned, it's just a thing Mundanes watch… a tv show… like a movie?... it's not… I didn't mean that… that _we'd_ be…" he chokes on the next word, his face burning, "naked and afraid."

"Oh." It's a strange response, but Kit knows Ty, so he says nothing, merely waits, watching him as he thinks, ponders, watching the gears in his head turning like a finely oiled machine. "Because I am afraid." Kit opens his mouth to reassure him or something, he doesn't know, but then Ty turns to him and his grey eyes shine in the dark like some sort of wild beast and he is speechless. "But a good afraid." He tilts his head to the side, as contemplative and serious as a bird. "Does that make sense?"

Kit gapes at him, a hundred responses whizzing through his head. But the one he settles for makes Ty's blush come back full force. "Tiberius Blackthorn you terrify me." And then he leans forward to press a chaste kiss to the boy in front of him.

Ty makes a startled noise so Kit pulls away, worried he has misread something (it wouldn't be the first time), worried that this was too much, too fast, too far. But Ty is staring at him with glittering eyes that are wide and glowing with wonder. He presses the fingers of his hands to his lips as if he can't believe they were just being kissed. They're trembling. "Ty…?"

Ty blinks, focuses on his face and there are so many thoughts behind those eyes Kit couldn't even begin to guess what he was thinking. But he doesn't look angry. Or scared. He looks…

"I wouldn't mind terrifying you some more, Christopher Herondale." His smile is soft and shy, but Kit feels it light him up from his very insides, as bright and ethereal as a rune, like a heavenly burning from his very core.

When he leans forward to rest his forehead against Ty's, pressing another light kiss to those smiling lips in front of him, he can't help but grin. "I hope they never find us."


End file.
